Clinic Highlight: EENR Visit to the Legislative Session

On Friday, February 8, the Energy, Environmental, and Natural Resources Clinic visited the legislature in Cheyenne. During the spring semester, the clinic focuses on specific areas of Wyoming energy, environmental and natural resource law, including how those laws are made through the Wyoming legislative process. The visit to the legislature, which is currently in session, provided the students with an overview of the legislative process and allowed the students to learn how the Wyoming lawmaking process works. Hosted by Cindy Delancey of the Wyoming Business Alliance, the students were able to meet a number of legislators and to talk to them about how serving in the legislature is a potential opportunity for them in the future as well.

While in Cheyenne, the clinic students also had an opportunity to sit down with the incoming attorney General Bridgit Hill to talk about the role of the Attorney General’s Office in state lawmaking and the enforcement of those laws.

The visit to the legislature is just one of the many educational expeditions that students in the clinic have undertaken this year. The clinic regularly travels to Cheyenne to meet with members of the Attorney General’s Office, and each clinic student has attended and participated in a Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hearing, conducting show cause hearings in front of the Commission.

In December the students in the Clinic travelled to Washington D.C. where they watched the United States Supreme Court oral argument on the important Wyoming case, Herrera v. Wyoming.

A main staple of the EENR clinic is the practical learning application that results in the students being well-informed in all aspects of their legal field. By connecting with legislators and practicing attorney’s, as well as performing in actual hearings, students are better equipped to enter the practice of law.  The College of Law is extremely grateful the members of the Bar, the legislature, and other regulatory entities in Wyoming for their willingness to engage and educate our students.

(Pictured above: EENR clinic students John Fritz, Christine Kelly, Jada Garofalo, Shelby Hayes, Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr, Wyoming Business Alliance President Cindy Delancey, Senator Chris Rothfuss, Representative Eric Barlow)